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norabarr's review against another edition
4.0
A very unusual read and pretty disturbing. I really got wrapped up in the story though.
bookishblond's review against another edition
4.0
This novel is supposedly a "contemporary retelling" of Sigmund Freud's case study of Dora, who was diagnosed with hysteria and undergoing psychoanalysis. As a psychology undergraduate student, I am familiar with the Dora case study, and I was naturally intrigued by the premise of this novel.
My Sister's Continent is an intelligently executed read that is both disturbing and compelling. Frangello addresses a wide range of issues from AIDS, sexual abuse, anorexia, sibling rivalry, and relationships in general, in order to craft a very real, very disturbing, web of family and dysfunctionality. I could not put this book down.
My Sister's Continent is an intelligently executed read that is both disturbing and compelling. Frangello addresses a wide range of issues from AIDS, sexual abuse, anorexia, sibling rivalry, and relationships in general, in order to craft a very real, very disturbing, web of family and dysfunctionality. I could not put this book down.
notoriousagk's review against another edition
4.0
Can we just talk about the last sentence here for a second? I don't think I've ever read a single sentence that so completely changed everything I thought about the book I was reading. It completely changed my entire outlook on the book (added a couple of stars to my review, and made it absolutely imperative that I reread the whole thing as soon as possible). I think that both the book and that sentence are going to stick with me for a long time.
That said, I felt (and can understand) some ambivalence about the book right up until that point. I don't know that there are many people I know who'd appreciate the recommendation. But for me, totally worth it.
That said, I felt (and can understand) some ambivalence about the book right up until that point. I don't know that there are many people I know who'd appreciate the recommendation. But for me, totally worth it.
norabarr's review
4.0
A very unusual read and pretty disturbing. I really got wrapped up in the story though.
meganmilks's review
5.0
immensely engrossing/disturbing. would not recommend to most people, but to those whom i would, i'd recommend it highly.
shelley jackson's Half Life rarely approaches the complexity of twin psychology that this book achieves. though Half Life is about conjoined twins, which is, yes, different than frangello's merely identical twins, jackson is all over the place and so smug with the metaphorizing of twin identity, it's overdone and too cerebral; frangello's twinning is visceral - and can't possibly be overdone bc the entire story is overdone but in the best way - like the french, bringin le drama.
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having read this twice now and really studied it in the interest of working it into a paper on pathologies and temporal drag, i bow down. really well crafted novel, and its production of pathology is hugely complicated and resists simplistic interpretation. there's no freudian reading that attempts to reduce incredibly complicated psychologies into one take. it's all a confusion. LIKE HUMANS! cue bjork.
shelley jackson's Half Life rarely approaches the complexity of twin psychology that this book achieves. though Half Life is about conjoined twins, which is, yes, different than frangello's merely identical twins, jackson is all over the place and so smug with the metaphorizing of twin identity, it's overdone and too cerebral; frangello's twinning is visceral - and can't possibly be overdone bc the entire story is overdone but in the best way - like the french, bringin le drama.
--
having read this twice now and really studied it in the interest of working it into a paper on pathologies and temporal drag, i bow down. really well crafted novel, and its production of pathology is hugely complicated and resists simplistic interpretation. there's no freudian reading that attempts to reduce incredibly complicated psychologies into one take. it's all a confusion. LIKE HUMANS! cue bjork.
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